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HTC Touch for Verizon - the XV6900 - Is Out
Posted by: PatrickJ on Apr 18 2008 - 1,652 views 
Verizon has launched their version of the popular HTC Touch, with a typically catchy name - the XV6900. It’s available online - HERE - for $299 before a rebate offer listed on the site.
The XV6900’s specs include:
* EV–DO, 1X RTT Capable
* Windows Mobile® 6 Professional
* Microsoft® Office Word Mobile, Excel® Mobile, and PowerPoint® Mobile; Adobe® Reader® LE PDF viewer
* View, edit, create Word and Excel files; view only PowerPoint and PDF files; view, extract, create ZIP files
* Internet Explorer® Mobile
* Windows Media® Player 10
* Memory: 128MB RAM/256MB ROM
* Bluetooth® Wireless Technology (v2.0)
* 2.8" Display: 240×320 pixel; 64K color TFT
* TouchFLO® technology allows finger and stylus input
* 5–way ENTER/NAVIGATION button
* Virtual, all–touch QWERTY keyboard with additional input options
* 2.0 megapixel camera with auto–focus, zoom and video capture
* microSD™ memory support (up to 8GB)
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Subscribe to the comments for this postWant To Switch to AT&T? For Your Web Browsing?
Posted by: PatrickJ on Apr 17 2008 - 306 views
I’m usually first in line for trying out a new browser. I’ve tried Flock (and liked it tons) recently, Safari on both Windows and Mac, and most recently the new Firefox 3 betas (which are superb so far). Today there is news of one that does not grab me a lot though.
AT&T has opened up a private beta of its new browser called Pogo. It is supposed to be a ‘hyper-visual’ browser - using CoverFlow style treatment for bookmarks / favorites (which apparently is so slow as to be virtually unusable) and also for browsing history, which is said to work pretty well. It also uses small ‘cells’ (its equivalent of tabs) that reside at the bottom of your browser screen and offer a more visual representation of what’s in each cell.
Ars Technica has done a mini-review of this (admittedly very early) beta, and things do not sound great. In fact, they sound a lot like a phone company trying to make a browser :) The main complaints with the current beta version seem to be some pretty terrible performance issues, and some ridiculously high system requirements:
First off, Pogo is Windows-only, and AT&T makes no indication that it will be available for the Mac anytime soon (or ever). It requires Windows XP SP2 or later or Windows Vista, and its minimum hardware are surprisingly steep: a 1.6GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, and a video card with at least 256MB of VRAM. Seem like a bit much for a web browser?
That just sounds crazy. No matter how early the beta is, how the hell does a web browser demand that sort of resources? I keep thinking that the trend should be towards lighter, more portable apps - not towards browsers that require you run a supercomputer.
The Ars Technica review is worth a read - you can catch it HERE - and let us know what you think of getting your browser from AT&T somewhere down the line …
Tags: AT&T, Pogo, AT&T web browser
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Asus Eee PC 900 Unveiled & Reviewed
Posted by: PatrickJ on Apr 16 2008 - 751 views
The new bigger edition of the massively popular Asus Eee PC - the Asus Eee PC 900 - has been officially announced by Asus, and has already been reviewed by CNET in the UK.
The new 900 model offers several major improvements - such as a bigger 8.9 inch screen, more storage, more memory, a multi-touch mouse trackpad, and an improved webcam. I have to say I’ve felt tempted by the Eee before, and to see the bigger screen plus more storage and memory is upping the temptation level a lot.
CNET’s review of the new Eee is pretty favorable. They’re not too impressed that the keyboard was not made bigger, but overall the device comes off very well.
According to CNET, the Eee 900 will be available May 1st for around £329 - no word yet on when this might launch in the US.
You can see the full review at:
Via: jkOnTheRun and Gizmodo
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PDair Leather Case for HTC TyTN II Reviewed by spmwinkel
Posted by: PatrickJ on Apr 16 2008 - 555 views
If you’ve got a King of the Hill device like the HTC TyTN II, you will most likely be wanting some protection for it. I haven’t spotted that many case reviews for TyTN 2 cases yet, so I was interested to see a very thorough one from our (probably) greatest commenter ever, spmwinkel.
spm has reviewed the PDair Leather Case for the HTC TyTN 2 over at this spmwinkel_ppc site. It’s a great review, with tons of good pics and a lot of detail on the protection and styling offered by this case - including a fairly unique double-barreled form of protection for the TyTN II’s screen.
Well worth a look if you’re sizing up TyTN II cases:
Review: PDair Leather Case for HTC TyTN II
Tags: PDair, HTC, TyTN II, TyTN 2, leather case
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UMPC Market Needs XP Lite, Leaner Windows Environment?
Posted by: PatrickJ on Apr 15 2008 - 532 views
The fact is, Vista is just not designed to work well on the vast majority of ultraportable computers, and XP flies in comparison. Instead of taking XP to end of life, Microsoft needs to consider XP as a core mobile platform going forward while keeping Windows Mobile reserved for phone-based devices that are pocketable or smaller.
That’s the verdict on how Microsoft should be gearing their OS strategy for mobile and ‘ultra-mobile’ devices, from Michael Gartenberg - in this Computerworld article. I haven’t used a UMPC device as yet, though I’d love to give an Asus Eee a try soon - but there sure seems to be a lot of this same feeling around of late. The feeling that Vista is just not geared for running on smaller devices - and that dosn’t seem surprising to me given that even on the desktop, Vista is often considered ‘bloated’.
Gartenberg talks about his experience using a 3rd party tool - NLite - to (severely) trim down Windows XP so that it fits onto an Asus Eee and still leaves him enough space to get a cut-down version of Office 2003 and a few games installed with half the Eee’s 4GB to spare. And he’s quite happy with his stripped-down version:
What I have is a tiny, easy-to-carry XP machine that weighs a mere 2 lb. and has everything I need when I’m on the road and nothing more. The machine boots in less than 20 seconds and shuts down in 10 (no need to hibernate or suspend). In short, it’s a cheap yet powerful mobile device that has full PC functionality.
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Aliph’s Jawbone 2 Spotted
Posted by: PatrickJ on Apr 15 2008 - 1,415 views
The Aliph Jawbone has been one of the most popular and well-received Bluetooth headsets on the market for a long time now. The only major complaints about it have been to do with a reportedly very flaky charger connector and its rather bulky size factor.
Last week Engadget spotted some details and even a pic (seen above) of the Jawbone 2. Apparently the new model has just made it past the FCC and will be arriving ’soon’.
The new model just broke through the FCC’s surly bonds in full visual glory, showing a headset that maintains the distinctive industrial design of the original while getting just a bit smaller and adopting a new connector that looks moderately less sketchy.
It’s hard to tell in that photo, but it doesn’t seem a whole lot smaller to me. Sticking with the same, very distinctive, design seems a good call to me though - and if the connector turns out to be more reliable, that’s got to be a good thing.
Via: Engadget
Tags: Aliph, Jawbone, Jawbone 2, bluetooth, BT, headset
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